a term used in Catholic countries for a kind of chapel of devotion, raised on a hillock near a city, in memory of the place where Jesus Christ was crucified near the city of Jerusalem. The word is derived from the Latin calvarium; and that from calceus, bald, in respect of the top of the hillock was bare and destitute of verdure; which is also signified by the Hebrew word golgotha.

in Heraldry, a cross so called, because it is supposed to resemble the cross on which our Saviour suffered. It is always set upon steps.